Tibolone inhibits bone resorption without secondary positive effects on cartilage degradation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteoarthritis is associated with increased bone resorption and increased cartilage degradation in the subchondral bone and joint. The objective of the present study was to determine whether Tibolone, a synthetic steroid with estrogenic, androgenic, and progestogenic properties, would have similar dual actions on both bone and cartilage turnover, as reported previously with some SERMS and HRT.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was a secondary analysis of ninety-one healthy postmenopausal women aged 52–75 yrs entered a 2-yr double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of treatment with either 1.25 mg/day (n = 36), or 2.5 mg/day Tibolone (n = 35), or placebo (n = 20), (J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1996 Jul;81(7):2419–22) Second void morning urine samples were collected at baseline, and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Urine CrossLaps^®ELISA (CTX-I) and Urine CartiLaps^®ELISA (CTX-II) was investigated as markers of bone resorption and cartilage degradation, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Tibolone significantly (P < 0.001) suppressed bone resorption by approximately 60%. In contrast, no effect was observed on cartilage degradation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data suggest uncoupling of the bone and cartilage effects of the synthetic steroid, Tibolone. Bone resorption was significantly decreased, whereas cartilage degradation was unchanged. These effects are in contrast to those observed some SERMs with effects on both bone and cartilage degradation. These effects may in part be described by the complicated pharmacology of Tibolone on testosterone, estrogen and progesterone receptors.</p

Discovery of the spectroscopic binary nature of six southern Cepheids

We present the analysis of photometric and spectroscopic data of six bright Galactic Cepheids: GH Carinae, V419 Centauri, V898 Centauri, AD Puppis, AY Sagittarii, and ST Velorum. Based on new radial velocity data (in some cases supplemented with earlier data available in the literature), these Cepheids have been found to be members in spectroscopic binary systems. V898 Cen turned out to have one of the largest orbital radial velocity amplitude (> 40 km/s) among the known binary Cepheids. The data are insufficient to determine the orbital periods nor other orbital elements for these new spectroscopic binaries. These discoveries corroborate the statement on the high frequency of occurrence of binaries among the classical Cepheids, a fact to be taken into account when calibrating the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheids. We have also compiled all available photometric data that revealed that the pulsation period of AD Pup, the longest period Cepheid in this sample, is continuously increasing with Delta P = 0.004567 d/century, likely to be caused by stellar evolution. The wave-like pattern superimposed on the parabolic O-C graph of AD Pup may well be caused by the light-time effect in the binary system. ST Vel also pulsates with a continuously increasing period. The other four Cepheids are characterised with stable pulsation periods in the last half century.Comment: accepted by the MNRAS, 11 pages, 16 figures, 18 tables, a part of the data can be downloaded from the online version of this articl

Numerical modelling of drawbeads for forming of aluminium alloys

The drawbeads in stamping tools are usually designed based on experience from the forming of steel. However, aluminium alloys display different forming behaviour to steels, which is not reflected in the drawbead design for tools used for stamping aluminium. This paper presents experimental results from different semi-circular drawbead geometries commonly encountered in automotive dies and compares them to those obtained from Stoughton's analytical drawbead model and the 2D plane strain drawbead model set up using LS-DYNA. The study was conducted on lubricated NG5754 strips. The results presented are in terms of drawbead restraining force versus strip displacement, as a function of drawbead depth. The FE drawbead model agrees well with the experiments whereas the analytical model overpredicted the drawbead forces

The ensemble of random Markov matrices

The ensemble of random Markov matrices is introduced as a set of Markov or stochastic matrices with the maximal Shannon entropy. The statistical properties of the stationary distribution pi, the average entropy growth rate $h$ and the second largest eigenvalue nu across the ensemble are studied. It is shown and heuristically proven that the entropy growth-rate and second largest eigenvalue of Markov matrices scale in average with dimension of matrices d as h ~ log(O(d)) and nu ~ d^(-1/2), respectively, yielding the asymptotic relation h tau_c ~ 1/2 between entropy h and correlation decay time tau_c = -1/log|nu| . Additionally, the correlation between h and and tau_c is analysed and is decreasing with increasing dimension d.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figur

USU Guitar Ensembles in Concert

The 2013 performance of the Utah State University Guitar Ensembles. Ensembles include the Large Acoustic Ensemble, Small Acoustic Ensemble, Electric Guitar Ensemble I, and Electric Guitar Ensemble II.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/music_programs/1184/thumbnail.jp

Cognitive Constraints Built into Formal Grammars: Implications for Language Evolution

[Abstract] We study the validity of the cognitive independence assumption using an ensemble of artificial syntactic structures from various classes of dependency grammars. Our findings show that memory limitations have permeated current linguistic conceptions of grammar, suggesting that it may not be possible to adequately capture our unbounded capacity for language without incorporating cognitive constraints into the grammar formalism.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; TIN2017-85160-C2-1-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad; TIN2017-89244-RAgencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación; 2017SGR-856Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2017/0

Memory limitations are hidden in grammar

The ability to produce and understand an unlimited number of different sentences is a hallmark of human language. Linguists have sought to define the essence of this generative capacity using formal grammars that describe the syntactic dependencies between constituents, independent of the computational limitations of the human brain. Here, we evaluate this independence assumption by sampling sentences uniformly from the space of possible syntactic structures. We find that the average dependency distance between syntactically related words, a proxy for memory limitations, is less than expected by chance in a collection of state-of-the-art classes of dependency grammars. Our findings indicate that memory limitations have permeated grammatical descriptions, suggesting that it may be impossible to build a parsimonious theory of human linguistic productivity independent of non-linguistic cognitive constraints.Comment: Version improved with reviewer feedbac